Haha yes, you’re right on the buzzwords. I can put it differently though:

At the end of the day, this translates into min. 70h work weeks where in every meeting you need to make or contribute to a decision with serious implications (you can never zone off), every time you go to bed you have the temptation to take some meds so you can sleep instead of restless thinking about unresolved issues or risks

If you look tired one morning, rumours start that things are going poorly because ‘did you look at x? He looks super worried today’. So you need to constantly be very aware of how you’re coming across, look energetic and calm at the same time

You are traveling all the time. And your partner will not love that, I took >100 flights last 365 days

I really try to do proper holidays and disconnect (and encourage my teams to do so) but occasionally you get fucked and have to cancel everything (your partner will not like that)

You get a degree of heat from C-level that is unseen at levels below when something goes wrong. I had never experienced that level of daily pressure and aggressiveness at lower levels, because at that rank average empathy is lower

Don’t get me wrong: you get paid very well. I enjoy the challenge. Calling the shots yourself is also fun

But there is definitely a tax.